Importing Kava to Oz

[Torsten]

give it a couple of weeks to se if there is any movement from within the ethnic community. I think it would be wiser to support this than to start our own. I would think the major kava importers would at least try and make an argument and getting non-ethnic back up might then embolden the ethnic community.

[chilli]

"I don't remember the name, but it was pink. There were a few people who ordered from their pink website"

LMAO

[John Smith]

I think it is time to overthrow the governement. They do that a lot in Fiji don't they?

[teonanacatl]

so is it kava only or kavalactones that are prohibited imports?

[badwolf]

bastards all of them. Sitting there, sipping their endless supply of "diplomatic gifts" (tax free home delivered 50 year old single malt).

VM

Exactly. As long as they can smoke their pipes and cigars, quaff their cognac and shun the common folk who vote these ignoramuses in, what do they care.

I once, and this is no lie, read a post by an ex-customs officer claiming that if he had his way, he would even ban the import of coffee and tea, as they were in his opinion, addictive.

This was waaayy back when I used to frequent alt.drugs in usenet however, and thats many a year ago now... Usenet is for spammers and goofheads these days.. ;/

Is there anywhere that people with valid concerns (ie; not the "I like me high ya mugs, bugger off!!") can Email/Write to ?

I spose I should look that up myself, but then, when I Emailed Rhonda Parker when she was minister for family and health (or some such, years ago now) in regards to her misleading and ill-informed statements regarding marijuana, all I got was the bot reply - telling me she was glad to have informed me of the dangers of drug use.

In fact every time I've attempted a rational debate with one of the elected, you get no where as an individual.

Shits me no end.

Damo.

[badwolf]

It's perplexing that they are using indigenous communities in NT as examples of 'problematic' kava trends. For fucks sake, again lets put this into perspective as an alcohol alternative. I have reason to believe that high-place-people within the liquor industry might just be running hard on these legislation changes on the mighty piper.

Sadly, I've even read (well before I even heard of this prohibition of importation) of people from Fiji being disgusted at the way the Indigenous folk in the NT were misusing their ceremonial drink. So maybe they themselves have played a part in this, albeit unwittingly.

I can understand that to a degree, but for the TGA/Govt/Whoever to make a law based on isolated instances of abuse where no matter what the substance is (petrol, alcohol, gunja, whatever) it is abused and where it is absolutely more a social problem than a substance abuse problem, is pathetic.

We see it all the time however, and all the voters will hear is 'intoxicating drug' and will follow the general rule of "drugs are bad mmmkay" effectively closing their ears to the concerns from people who have no traditional history of using kava.

That's ok.. I'll go buy my bottle of absolut vodka, pop by the chemist and buy some panadeine forte (the cwe aint too hard, just messy), some dextromethorphan HBR, and die from an overdose of legally available yet 'mind altering' drugs... Hey, they get tax dollars that way !

Damo.

[badwolf]

is kava a problem in the indigenous communities?

i mean i know it's used, but are there innumerable reports ov kava influenced violence or child abuse, like there are w/alcohol?

From reports I've read it is more that they sit there all day drinking it, and as theyre only given 1 bag a week (iirc) they try and get others to get more for them, so they can merely sit around till they pass out.

IE; no different than the grog or the petrol abuse, but with far less detrimental effects - apart from the bad shit giving them skin rash, etc, which was also focused on.

In other words, it's a scapegoat...

[Francois le Danque]

this is just like US and A with cannabis in the thirties...it was still perfectly legal, technically, but you had to have a license to use it. The government issued zero licenses.

gee whiz fellas why dont we just lock the aborigines in little boxes so they cant do anything at all? you know instead of fixing the real problems.

i went to HHH the other day and was told that kava was temporarily sold out, that they would have some more soon. not looking good now is it...

[Klin Kava]

It looks like its all over for kava importers, medical certificates, the lot!

Dear John,

thanks for your email of 23 July.

At this time it is unlikely that kava will be able to be imported for therapeutic use, other than in the form of medicines that are approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) or where it will be used only for the manufacture of such medicines.

Generally speaking kava for therapeutic use would be a prescription only medicine in Australia. It is included in schedule 4 of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons which is referenced or adopted into state and territory legislation covering medicines. There are several products approved for use in Australia that are not prescription medicines, however, they have been approved by the TGA and the quality and manufacture aspects are tightly controlled. You can search for approved products on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods

https://www.tgasime.health.gov.au/SIME/ARTG...public?OpenView (search for kava and tick the fuzzy search box)

To reflect traditional cultural use, up to 2 kg of kava in root or dried form can be brought into the country by a passenger. This allowance does not extend to therapeutic products approved by the TGA.

Please feel free to contact me if I can assist further.

Regards

George Thomas

Team Leader (Acting)

Treaties and Compliance

Office of Chemical Safety

Department of Health and Ageing

[dqd]

Jesus wept

[Conan Troutman]

Jesus wept

Damn you TGA!...

looks like its off to the dealer to get some blackmarket valium...

edit* or the bottle shop

Edited July 24, 2007 by Conan Troutman

[AndyAmine.]

[XipeTotec]

good luck finding a doctor that will prescribe a herbal remedy for anything.

Edited July 24, 2007 by XipeTotec

[AndyAmine.]

Luckily I recently found a naturopath that can prescribe me Tryptophan and Gaba so hopefuly she will be happy to write one out for Kava.

Those thompsons kava extract tablets look interesting, apparently equaly to 2gms of root per tab.

[XipeTotec]

Luckily I recently found a naturopath that can prescribe me Tryptophan and Gaba so hopefuly she will be happy to write one out for Kava.

Those thompsons kava extract tablets look interesting, apparently equaly to 2gms of root per tab.

yeah, but it doesnt look like they will be able to prescribe or supply power? It is funny if those extract tablets will still be available, because the couple of cases of liver toxicity relating to kava (which, as far as I know was enough to make kava unavailable several years ago) were related to extracted products. Thats the problem with the TGA, hundreds of people can have medical issues with a pharmaceutical, and it is left on the market, one or two medical issues with a natural/herbal medicine, and its off the shelf.

I was just informed that it eventuated that kava alcohol tinctures were found to be the issue with liver toxicity in relation to concentrated kava preperations

Edited July 24, 2007 by XipeTotec

[AndyAmine.]

They actualy mention the liver toxicity thing on the Thompsan Kava 2000 page, they say that the toxicity problem was cause by alcohol extracted kava and that there products is water extracted... they are kind of skimming around the truth on that one.